Curious SouthCoast: How the French Canadian sharpshooter's club is linked to the Orpheum

The Club of French Sharpshooters, or Le Club des Francs-Tireurs, was one of the oldest French Canadian benevolent and fraternal organizations ever formed in New Bedford.

The organization dates back to 1891 when a group of French Canadians in the North End of New Bedford made Edgerton's Hall at Purchase and Linden streets its gathering place and “used the hall as a sort of club room without having any definite name or purpose.”

Le Club des Francs-Tireurs was incorporated on Sept. 26, 1892. The group’s charter describes its purpose, which was “to form a union of the French Canadians of New Bedford, to have Fraternal meetings, to establish a mutual fund for the benefit of sick members and the heirs of decreased members, permit the members to amuse, instruct, educate themselves and conserve the language by founding a library by lectures, by dramatics, etc. and by the establishment of a uniformed company.”

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The French sharpshooters started it all

The original officers of the club were Alfred M. Gravel, president; Isaie Therien, vice president; Henri M. Croteau, treasurer; Thomas M. St. Germain, secretary; and Ignace E. Richard, corresponding secretary. The group was organized purely for social purposes.

The club later made a pilgrimage to Central Falls, Rhode Island, a center of the French-Canadian settlement in Southern New England, for celebration of the Feast of St. Jean Baptiste.

According to Wikipedia, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day is a holiday celebrated on June 24 in the Canadian province of Quebec and was brought to Canada by French settlers celebrating the traditional feast day of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. It was declared a public holiday in Quebec in 1925.

Its French Canadian members returned from their pilgrimage with the idea of transforming their organization into a beneficial association. For example, they helped the immigrants among them achieve citizenship.

The connection to New Bedford's Orpheum Theatre

When the Orpheum Theatre opened on April 15, 1912, the day the Titanic sank, the building had already been open for nearly 50 years.

What many people may not know is that there was a French Sharpshooter’s Hall, or Salle Francs-Tireurs, that once shared space in the Orpheum Theatre building in New Bedford’s South End. The club actually owned the building.

A poster from back in the day proclaims, "The Sharpshooter Playhouse Presents: 'Queen of the Amazon' with Robert Lowery, Patricia Morrison and J. Edmond Bromberg."

Inside was a shooting range where troops preparing for World Wars I and II were trained. There was also a grand ballroom, offices and meeting spaces, a gymnasium and retail space on the lower level.

The Sharpshooters were once known throughout New England and the East Coast for their precision drill teams.

In 1899, the Sharpshooters Branch No. 2 was formed to serve members in the South End of New Bedford. The South End Branch was the first to form a uniformed company.

Headquarters for Branch No. 2 was in the Orpheum building. The South End Branch also organized its own rifle team and was admitted to the National Rifle Association in 1916.

The club leased the theater to the Orpheum Circuit of Boston until it closed for the first time in 1958-1959, opened several times for special events and was closed again before the Sharpshooter’s Club sold it in 1962. It was for a time used as storage by a tobacco and candy company. The building is now privately owned.

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The club on Hicks Street

In 1911, Le Club des Francs-Tireurs operated out of 70 Hicks St. It was the group’s headquarters after it was purchased in 1893, and Le Club des Francs-Tireurs was prominently engraved on the building.

It remained the meeting place until 1955 when Sharpshooters Hall, then known as the North End Guild, was sold to the Wamsutta Old Timers.

The club moved to its South End quarters at 1007 S. Water St., where it remained until 1963. The final seven years of the club's existence was in a store in the Brooklawn Apartments in the North End of the city.

The club finally disbanded on Sept. 24, 1970.

Sources for this story include the Registry of Deeds, the Standard-Times library, assessor’s office and tax assessment records.

Standard-Times staff writer Kathryn Gallerani can be reached at kgallerani@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @kgallreporter. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Standard-Times today.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: History of the French sharpshooters club and New Bedford's Orpheum